where are all smeardemoRATS: North Korea Invites U.N. Nuclear Chief to Talks
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 23, 2007
Filed at 12:57 p.m. ET
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Friday that North Korea has invited him to visit to discuss dismantling its nuclear facilities -- a sign of the country's new willingness to subject its atomic program to outside scrutiny.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he and North Korean authorities would discuss how to ''implement the freeze of (nuclear) facilities'' and ''eventual dismantlement of these facilities.''
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said ElBaradei would probably visit in the second week of March, after the agency board meets on North Korea and Iran, the other country of international nuclear concern.
Under a Feb. 13 agreement, the North -- which tested a nuclear weapon late last year -- agreed to dismantle its nuclear facilities and to normalize its relationships with South Korea, Japan and the United States in exchange for oil shipments, other aid and security guarantees.
The deal requires North Korea to first shut down and seal its main nuclear reactor, accept international monitors and begin discussions with the United States on its other nuclear facilities. In return, the nations will ship the North an initial load of fuel oil.
If North Korea then declares all its nuclear programs and begins to disable its nuclear facilities, it will get a much larger shipment of fuel oil and aid.
The White House said North Korea's invitation to ElBaradei was a positive sign the process is moving forward.
''It shows that we're beginning to execute the terms of the agreement,'' spokesman Tony Fratto said. ''We'll be interested in hearing his report when he gets back.''
While ElBaradei offered no details, his announcement signaled the North's further willingness to open its nuclear program to outsiders for the first time since withdrawing from the Nonproliferation Treaty three years ago and ordering agency inspectors to leave.
Still, it was only the first step in what a U.N. official described as ''a process that could take years.''
Ideally that process would include re-establishing monitoring of the plutonium-producing Yongbyon nuclear facility, then being on site while it is mothballed and then dismantled.
''At the same time, there has to be some kind of declaration of what North Korea has and some way of following that up,'' said the diplomat, who asked for anonymity in exchange for discussing confidential information with The Associated Press.
Little is know about the North's nuclear program, leaving the outside world to rely mostly on North Korean claims since IAEA inspectors left in December 2002.
Among areas of concern are what the United States insists is a second-track weapons program beyond the North's plutonium-based activities that uses uranium enrichment -- the same process that Washington accuses Iran of seeking to perfect in order to develop nuclear arms.
Chun Yung-woo, South Korea's chief nuclear envoy, told reporters in Seoul that whether North Koreas will relinquish existing nuclear weapons and material, believed enough for as many as a dozen bombs, will depend on the other countries involved -- China, South Korea, Japan, the United States and Russia.
''What is important is not to give any excuse to North Korea to delay its denuclearization obligations and for it to avoid implementation of its end of the deal,'' he said.
Conservatives in Washington have berated the Bush administration for caving in on what had been its previous tough stance on the North. The U.S. agreed to resolve financial restrictions it placed on a Macau bank -- accused of complicity in counterfeiting and money laundering by North Korea -- to pave the way for the disarmament-for-aid deal.
On Friday during a visit to Australia, Vice President Dick Cheney expressed caution about the agreement, calling it a ''first hopeful step.''
''We go into this deal with our eyes open,'' said Cheney. ''In light of North Korea's missile test last July, its nuclear test in October and its record of proliferation and human rights abuses, the regime in Pyongyang has much to prove.''
Japan has also said it will not provide any aid under the deal or lift sanctions until the North takes concrete steps. Tokyo wants to address the issue of its abducted citizens that the North has admitted kidnapping but Japan says it has not been fully resolved.
A newspaper allied with the North Korean regime, in a Friday commentary, praised last week's deal as a ''new milestone.''
''Now the point is whether (President) Bush can make a brave decision to boldly switch over his policy toward the (North) and choose the path of historic reconciliation and peaceful coexistence,'' the Japan-based Choson Sinbo wrote.
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Associated Press writers Rohan Sullivan in Sydney, Australia, and Jae-soon Chang and Burt Herman in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report. |
